What Does Virtue Direct Me to Pursue?
“If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable.”
Seneca, Letters to Lucilius, Letter 71
I was part of a workforce reduction this past April. Since then I have applied to a variety of roles, and thrown a series of entrepreneurial “darts” at the wall, hoping one would stick. I was quickly spinning plates in a variety of areas, with no real bandwidth to execute on any of them. I had no real brand. I had confidence I could be successful at these ventures. I had a lot of experience across a variety of industries and roles, and personal adventures and experiences have provided me a unique set of skills… not those skills, although I did run a Dojo once.
At any rate, I decided I needed a reset. So I took a break from LinkedIn, and technology in general, and stepped away for a while with some philosophy books to do some soul searching. Hence the quote above from Seneca. His Letters to Lucilius, a collection of 124 letters in which he gives practical advice on living, was among his best-known works, and these are some of the ideas I keep coming back to:
- Time is a scarce resource people waste on trivial pursuits and time, not money, is what we should protect.
- He saw hardships as a resource. Adversity presented an opportunity for us to improve, much as physical exercise improves strength and mobility.
- He said we should judge ourselves daily, reviewing each day in the evening to see what we had done well, and where we had fallen short.
- Focus on what we can control. Similar to the well-known Serenity Prayer, which paraphrased says, to accept the things we cannot change, the courage to change the things we can, and wisdom to know the difference.
So I sat with these thoughts: “What does virtue direct me to pursue?”
Seneca would have written Superman if he had been a creative
For Seneca, virtue was concrete and pointed to some specific things.
Sense of virtue meant acting as a rational being who was wise, just, courageous, and temperate. You couldn’t be an a-hole or live in fear, as those emotions distort our judgment and make us “act a fool”. This was not a direct quote of course. Public servitude was important and he held our duties extended beyond family and city. Finally, he saw practicing philosophy would make you a better person over time. Over time being of particular note, as he described himself as someone still making progress, rather than a finished product.
I’ll spare you the cross-over analysis between these and the Superman story.
My work in progress
So after a month away, my Superhero attributes, and what I will use to direct me in my job search, are:
- Active listening
- Ability to see my own mistakes and take corrective action
- Ability to deflect distractions from my team
- Ability to prioritize
- Radical candor
- Celebrates people’s wins
PS. Let me know if you want to talk Superman.